The French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) announced this Wednesday, January 19, in a statement that they have launched an investigation into the “murder of a French national” in Tiznit, southern Morocco.
The murder, which occurred on Saturday, January 15, has been classified as a terrorist crime in France, while Moroccan authorities have arrested a 31-year-old suspect on the same day.
The PNAT said that “the investigation has been entrusted to the Directorate General of Internal Security, the anti-terrorist sub-directorate of the central directorate of the judicial police and the central directorate of the judicial police.”
The Moroccan prosecutor’s office has also entrusted the murder investigation to the anti-terrorist police, suspecting “a terrorist motive for the crime,” according to statements reported on Monday evening by the AFP, citing a source close to the investigation.
The Moroccan Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) has been entrusted with the investigation in this case under the supervision of the King’s prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Rabat due to suspicions that the crime was motivated by terrorism.
The suspect arrested on Saturday is also suspected of having committed a separate “assassination attempt” of a Belgian woman in Agadir, according to Moroccan police.
The Belgian citizen was wounded with a knife and hospitalized in the southern city.
Police also said that the suspect, who is now under anti-terrorism investigation, had previously been admitted to a psychiatric hospital “from September 25 to October 25, 2021.”
Following the murder of the septuagenarian, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs “recommended” french tourists to be vigilant in all public places when traveling in Morocco, in a post on the website of the French Embassy in Morocco.
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